A Gun Griffon Retrospective

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We take a look at Game Arts' first Gun Griffon game for Saturn and compare it to the new PS2 game.

By Dave Zdyrko

A Look Back For its time, Game Arts' first entry into the Gun Griffon series (on Sega Saturn) was considered one of the best mech-action games of its time. It featured fast-paced first-person gameplay with very clean and crisp 3D graphics. While it was essentially ignored by the majority of the American public, a fate that was seen by numerous other first-rate Sega Saturn titles, it received plenty of critical praise and was generally looked upon highly by anyone who played it.

Originally released on June 19, 1996, in the US by Sega of America, the game was also known for having one of the best opening FMV sequences on Saturn. While a bit grainy and hampered by lots of compression artifacts, it still stood as one of the best opening cinemas of its time and was clearly a well-produced opening.

As you can clearly see from the two videos, we've definitely come a long way in the four years from the release of the first Saturn version to the new PS2 title in terms of CG rendering and video quality. However, the jump in production and design isn't as clearly established.

Game Arts went on to release Gun Griffon II for Sega Saturn in Japan, but it never found its way to the United States. To be released by Working Designs, Gun Griffon Blaze, the third title in the series, will be the second Gun Griffon game to make its way onto American shores.

The Story In the original Gun Griffon, players were placed into in our world in the future where the effects of global warming have taken their toll on the planet, leaving the inhabitants no choice but to fight for the remaining resources. Split into four groups, the Pan European Union (PEU), the United America Countries (UAC), the Asian Pacific Community (APC), and the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the factions battle it out for many years, which led to numerous revolutions of the mechanics of war. These begin with the establishment of an all-terrain armored vehicle, the Armored Walking Gun System (AWGS), by the APC in 2007. This initially gave the APC a major edge, but future development of a more advanced armored fighting machine, the HIGH-MACS, served to even things up and this is where the player steps in. As the pilot of one of the HIGH-MACS in the 45th Armored Division, the player must compete as a member of the UAC's Foreign Legion in an effort to fight for the survival of his allies.

We're not completely sure about this, as we've only received story information for the Japanese version of the game, but the story in Gun Griffon Blaze seems to follow a similar history, but doesn't appear to be completely related. In Blaze, the setting is sometime after our current present, where volcanic eruptions, global climate change on a massive scale, a worldwide food crisis, the destruction of Washington DC by a nuclear terrorist attack, and North America collapsing into Balkanized anarchy has all recently happened.

And instead of playing as the Americans, as was the case in the very first Gun Griffon, in Blaze, you'll play as part of the 501st Japanese Foreign Legion, the troops sent to fight on one side of a three-way conflict in the shattered former United States. In this fight, you get to use the seventeen-ton HIGH-MACS III, the next generation of the highly mobile mecha. Players will actually get to fight alongside with the United States, who are allied with Japan in this world war.

The Missions Gun Griffon on Sega Saturn featured a grand total of eight single player missions that brought players to Kharkov, Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine, Novosibirsk, Siberia, Ulan Bator, Mongolia, Datong, China, Lianyungang, China, Weifang, China, and East Ural, Russia. The missions ranged from guarding allied bases and neutralizing all enemies in a given territory to leading an onslaught on the enemy forces with the ultimate goal of winning the war for the side of good.

In Gun Griffon Blaze, the player starts out with the ability to take part in any one of six different campaigns that take place in Guam, Cape Canaveral, Tibet, Greece, Ukraine, and Egypt. Each of these offer a different level of difficulty, beginning with the Guam scenario, which is a simple training mission. The missions are fairly varied in goal and include things from simply destroying all the mechs in an area to taking out a particular target such as a space shuttle. What's more, there are missions of different difficulties in each of teh six different campaigns, bringing the total number of missions up to 12. Once again, the ultimate goal is to help win the war for the good guys.

The Screenshots This is where we say the biggest difference with the two games, the visuals. Thanks to the extra processing power offered by Sony's 128-bit PlayStation 2, the latest Gun Griffon game smokes its originator on Saturn in terms of the raw number of polygons used in the models and backgrounds, the texture quality and in the special effects used in explosions and lighting. Four years and a lot of extra processing muscle has helped make a much more realistic looking game that has the graphical quality that's on par with the FMV in the original.

Final Wrap-up The series hasn't really evolved that much beyond the huge leap in visuals, due to the increased power of Sony's sleek black beauty. The two games' play mechanics are mostly unchanged, except for the more fluid control offered by the use of the Dual Shock 2 controller. The only other significant improvement is with the advancement of the use of audio with regard to the continuous chatter that you'll get in Gun Griffon Blaze. The bottom line is that Gun Griffon was one of the best mech-based action games of its time and the same can probably be said of Game Arts' third game in the series, Gun Griffon Blaze.